Niners poised to make big offseason splash?

The 49ers have a lot of salary-cap room and two first-round picks for 2010. It only goes to reason that they would investigate all the possibilities for immediately improving the roster.

Mike Silver might have foreshadowed a possible big move from the 49ers in his Yahoo.com article on 49ers GM Scot McCloughan. Silver wrote about the Panthers trading up with the 49ers in the second round to select pass-rusher Everette Brown as a possible replacement for Julius Peppers.

Then, Silver wrote this about the 49ers after conducting interviews with McCloughan:

“With cap space and a pair of 2010 first-rounders, he (McCloughan) now has the ammunition to make a big move if he decides there’s an impact player worth acquiring via trade, either during next April’s draft or at any time before it.”

There are no reports or rumors linking the 49ers to Peppers, but it is logical.

You can believe the 49ers have considered the pros and cons of what it would take to acquire Peppers. First, they’d have to work out the compensation with the Panthers; then, they’d have to hand over a huge contract to appease Peppers, whose original list of four preferred destinations did not include the 49ers.

The 49ers and Panthers have not discussed the possibilities of a trade, I’ve been told.

One of the other big-ticket guys who remains unsigned is Ravens’ outside linebacker Terrell Suggs. He has yet to sign his franchise tender, but – unlike Peppers – he has not publicly demanded a trade.

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Former S.F. mayor Willie Brown famously trashed then-49ers quarterback Elvis Grbac in 1996, calling him a “disgrace to humankind” after a late-game interception against the Cowboys contributed to a 49ers loss.

(Shall we talk about how Grbac spent his nights in the two weeks leading up to that game at the hospital to be with his son who had been diagnosed with spina bifada? No, we won’t mention that part of the story.)

Anyway, Brown managed to take a little dig at 49ers quarterback Alex Smith on Wednesday when he introduced former 49ers exec Terry Tumey as the new athletic director at DominicanUniversity in San Rafael. Brown said Tumey was part of the process when the 49ers guaranteed $24 million to Smith, the No. 1 overall pick in 2005.

“We won’t hold him accountable,” Brown said of Tumey’s role in awarding Smith his rookie contract. “But at the time, it seemed like a good idea.”